ok. so i just saw the film tonight in theaters and i am only wondering one thing. is eli blind or not?

For Eli to legitimately be blind
would be incredible. He manages to kill slues of bandit thugs
with ease and have an incredible sense of his surronds. However
the directors did a very well done
subtle job revealing his “handicap”. For instance o find
his bearings he often looks into the sun( to feel the warmpth)
also the movie reveals that the bible is Brail. Non the less
there are several counter examples like how he is surprised by the hung person
in the closet and how he spots a car in the begining, even though
we he goes to search the vehicle I’ll admit he pats down a skeleton for shoes.
possibly because he is only slight? Who knows for sure though
the author is write this movie definately sparks some conversations.

ELI WAS BLIND AND YOU SEE THAT AT THE END.I THINK WHAT THIS IS TELLING US IS THAT TO LIVE TRULY BY WHAT GOD WANTS US TO DO, WE HAVE TO FOLLOW WITH BLIND FAITH. WHEN WE FOLLOW WHAT MAN HAS CREATED WE LOSE SIGHT OF GOD.IN THIS TIME AND AGE WHEN RELIGION HAS BECOME A POWER AND CORRUPT THING ( GARY OLDMAN’S CHARACTER ) WE MUST BELIEVE IN THAT WHICH YOU CAN NOT SEE. BLIND TO THE THINGS AROUND US OR YOU WILL LOSE SIGHT IN GOD REALLY FAST. MAN HAS CORRUPTED GOD TO HIS POWER AND WILL TO CONTROL THOSE WHO DO NOT KNOW. OUR FAITH COMES IN GOD’S WORD WHICH ELI TRUSTED AND COVETED SO MUCH THAT HE WAS ALLOWING NOTHING TO TAKE IT AWAY AND WE HAVE LOST THAT TODAY. IF WE DO NOT BREAK DOWN THE BARRIERS OF MAN AND PUT FULL TRUST IN HIM IT WILL BE OUR END. ELI WAS AN EXAMPLE OF WHAT WE MUST BECOME… BLIND TO MAN AND SEE FREELY ALL OF GOD.

*SPOILER ALERT*
Blind, maybe. the one thing that made me think otherwise was why does he look at his iPod to select a song?
Also his book is put on the shelf (in the middle) with all the rest.
I see it as about having hope regardless of what denomination you are, to hope for better for all man kind. plenty of people in all faiths have picked what tenants of their faith to follow, some being only the self serving ones,
Spiritual movie? yes.
christian? maybe. that all depends on perception, wasn’t for me, but it was a very good movie.

At the end the camera shoes you a close up of his eyes and they are definitely incenuating he was blind. I had no idea during the entire movie he was blind until then. Looking back I guess you could say there were many clues. It was a good movie. It was more like I was expecting to see from “The Road” but was disappointed by.

eli was NOT totally blind. by the end of the movie he may have been totally blind by then due to maybe an worsen illness or just old age. but during the movie there are def times he saw.

I would have to say that Eli was blind,when you loose a sense you gain a boost on your other senses, Eli’s sense of smell was greatly improved ex: when he smelled the stench of the bandits from 30ft away when the woman with the cart tried to lure him. Eli’s sense of hearing was also improved ex: when Eli and Solara were walking down the road and Eli asks do you hear that and she replies that she didn’t hear anything and he draws his bow back and takes the vulcher out of the sky. Not to mention the obvious clue when he takes off his glasses at the end and his eyes are fogged. I’m sure others will disagree. I’m not saying I’m right this is just what i believe.

Yes, Eli is blind. He has highly developed other senses, like the blind swordsman Zatoichi of the 1960s Japanese cinematic series by the late, great Katzu.
The wasteland through which we see Eli wandering is a metaphor for life in the secular consumer age in which we live, an age in which the Bible no longer provides a moral framework.
Carnegie knows that the Bible provided a means of control exercised by the Church and charlatans like Jimmy Swaggert and other TV evangelists. Extinct TV plays an important backdrop role in the film.
At the end in Alcatraz we see the Bible being placed next to the Qur’an and other books through which God has revealed himself through other cultures.

This was a very good movie. That being said I believe it would be very unlikely that Eli was blind, sight impaired maybe, but not bind. If he were blind it would have made his expert marksmanship when he left town impossible, and the ipod thing too. Plus why would he need the sunglasses? He wouldn’t need to protect his eyes.

I think he wore his sunglasses, so the other folks who encountered him, wouldn’t find out that he was blind. That would be a weakness which presumably, he wouldn’t want to make obvious.

Another thing to note was during the gunfight before he left the town. He only shot, when shot at (I am assuming, he shot in the direction of the sound). Also, after the gun fight ended, the second in command had his gun pointed at Eli (for some reason, he never shot at Eli) but Eli didn’t try to shoot at him and just turned around and walked away.

i beleive eli was blind, one example not yet told was when he arrived at the old couples home, he kicked the first step of their porch to gauge exactly where he was at.

But, when he “read”, did he use his hands or really read? That is what I want to know.
I think that he used to be blind but “God” gave him sight for the task.

I caught quite a few of the hints and believe that he was partially blind. Meaning he couldn’t see well enough to read or to see a flame (he kept waving his hand over the lighter), or see that the battery image on the ipod was flashing (he kept pushing the play button) but he could see well enough to walk right up to a house out in the middle of nowhere. In fact, he walked right along the path that was laid out with the white rocks….but he had to kick the stop to know where to step up. Also if he was totally blind, how did he walk in the bar and walk right up and order the water? I think maybe he was going blind more and more throughout the movie. At the end, maybe he was totally blind.

I acually think that he maybe was partally blind but he could still see a little. Because in the part were he pushes that cat of the side of the bar table how could he have seen it because is dosnt make a sound but in conclusion in the end were there going to alcatraz he does take oh hiss glasses and maybe the he turns completly blind.

I think that Denzel’s character “Eli” was blind. There was a lot of foreshadowing, for example when he shot the bird out of the sky he said and i quote “Did you hear that?” then told Mila Kunis’s character to stop moving then followed to shoot his arrow into the sky without even taking aim. Also when he was walking up to the house of Gary and Martha he said that he honestly didn’t see the sign and his character does not tend to be a liar.

Yes, DW’s character was blind. After seeing it a second time, there are many inferences throughout the movie where he used smell, taste and hearing to make his way. This makes you want to see it twice to confirm your suspicions. I have another hiccup about the movie: The cart lady and gang was encountered BEFORE Eli reached Carnegie’s town. Eli was heading west so the fight happened east of the town. Yet, Solara encounters the same cart lady AFTER they leave the town, again heading west. Did the cart lady move after her gang met Eli the first time? She would have had to move through the town and set up shop again, west of the town or maybe I drank too much Coke at the movie.

I think Eli was blind in one eye. During the close up, one eye had a corneal opacity, but the other did not.

I liked it. I agree with some that he was probably very close to being totally blind. He would touch things as if re-assuring himself of where they were. DW is great as usual. Oldman was very much Oldman. I think they overdid the rapes scenes a bit, but, oh well. I think Richard’s comments are right on. The shooting of the cat in the beginning would strengthen the view of partial blindness. It was certainly a provoking and well done film.

IF ELI WASN’T BLIND, WHY WOULD THE BIBLE BE IN BRAIL?

if eli is blind,howcome he saw the graves in the back yard!!!?and saw the dead body in the closet!?I dont think he is blind maybe as tony said very close to being blind but definetly not blind.

could eli been listening to the Bible on his ipod? i thought solora was heading back east to her home and eli “sensed” something was wrong and went to save her

what is the name of the song at the beginning of the movie he is playing on his ipod and the artist

Eli also smiles when Solara asks if he will teach her to read, which he cannot because he is blind.

He had all the senses of a blind person. Smell, sound. Now he hasnt always been blind. His blindness was caused by the sun flash that killed thousand of other people.

The name of the song is Al Green – How Can You Mend a Broken heart.
He knew there was a dead person in the closet because of the smell. The guy hadn’t been dead for too long his skin still had flesh on it.
Same goes with the graves. George said he took care of the trespassers and immediately asks Eli to go with him bc he wanted to show him something. He might have been able to smell the corpses as well.
As for knowing old couple hands were shaking, Martha’s hands were shaking when she was giving them tea. You could hear the cup against the saucer.
I personally enjoyed the movie very much.

eli had partial sight not totally blind…. look at the movie I don’t care if you have been blind for 30 years you can not walk without tripping over all the shit and rubble that was in the streets what a piece of crap movie.

yeah he might not have been totally blind because solaras mom was blind her whole life and she couldnt walk and move as good as eli.if you were blind your whole life you would be able to do that.and eli also asked if she was blinded by the flash or if she was born with it.eli is definatly somewhat if not completly blind

so my question then, if he wasn’t blind his whole life, how did he know how to read brail and where did he get the bible because they stopped making books after the war. Also, he said “I don’t walk by sight, I walk by faith” or something like that so the idea is that he would be able to walk perfectly without seeing because he is led by God.

The spirit is what leads the body. We place our bodies as the focal point and neglect the spirit. That why most men and women fall to sexual perversion. The partner knows more about your body and lust for it. He or she is connected to the sculpture of your body. This pattern leads to divorce and infindelity. Sex won’t keep you and when the spirit is lifted the sex in marriage is worship to God. God looks down and is well pleased!!!!!!!!

February 18, 2010 8:53 PM
The spirit is what leads the body. We place our bodies as the focal point and neglect the spirit. That why most men and women fall to sexual perversion. The partner knows more about your body and lust for it. He or she is connected to the sculpture of your body. This pattern leads to divorce and infindelity. Sex won’t keep you and when the spirit is lifted the sex in marriage is worship to God. God looks down and is well pleased!!!!!!!!

@jimbob: “a piece of crap movie”? some harsh words there, my friend. But i guess everyone is entitled to his own opinion.
For me, I’d like to believe that he was in fact completely blind, had heightened senses, and led on by faith in God. The “walking by faith” makes the movie a lot more meaningful to me. I also do not think that Eli’s superior fighting skills should be taken literally. It most probably has some deeper meaning to it.
Movies generate different responses from different viewers. What I like about this movie is that it presented a lot about humanity and its flaws. What is common in these apocalyptic themed movies is that they are warnings. We should not wait for something devastating before we clean up our acts.

What do you think about adding some more illustrations? I don’t want to offend anyone, content is really nice. But as I know people acquire info much more efficient when they see certain useful pictures.
Nency Swift

It is very interesting for me to read this article. Thanx for it. I like such topics and anything that is connected to them. I definitely want to read more on this site soon.
Julia Benedict

how to put dvd to ipod?you can use a dvd to ipod converter to help you.

Really cool story you have here. It’d be just great to read a bit more about such theme. Thank you for sharing such material.
Megan PRICE

Obviously, Eli has macular damage. This is a fairly serious type of blindness, where the center part of the eye is blind, but you still have peripheral version.
Eli WOULD NOT be able to read, drive, or thread a needle. However, he most definitely COULD walk a highway, take a tea-cup, avoid bumping into objects. He might also be a good fighter.
To me, he looks like someone with macular degeneration — turning his head often, looking up to see what is in front of him, etc.
Staring at the sun can cause macular damage. Also, I guess — witnessing a thermo-nuclear explosion up close can cause this type of blindness
It all makes sense to me. What a great movie!

s
http://002evolves.blogspot.com

Wow Wizzie — Thanks for your comment. I am one to have to understand something – and I was confused by the movie character Eli. He can see to shoot the cat with the arrow – even through the fallout. He can see the mouse and hand him a piece of the cooked cat. Throughout the movie he portrays as someone who definitely is not blind. Your comment gives some good insight. My husband says that perhaps God gave him the ability to see to fight.

What I want to know is *where* exactly is it stated that he is blind? Did the author of the story wrote in in print somewhere? Certainly not in the movie.
He shot a guy on the rooftop, an arrow at a flying bird, feeds the mouse, saw the lone house in the valley. He puts on sunglasses.. of well.. so does Ray Charles I guess.. except Eli takes off his sunglasses in the night. None of these would be indication of a blind person.

Agree with Ezekiel.. Eli is not blind
He shot the cat.. and dust off the leaves stuck to the blood. Blind people won’t see the leaves stuck..
He extended his hand to feed the mouse..
He moves his head often, looking up and down the road
When confronted with the bandits wanting his back-pack, just before the fight, he stepped backed and looked to his back. Why? To make sure there is no one behind him. This is sight reliance not senses.
He ducked his head when the motorcycle gang came.. did he know he would be covered by something?
He jumped back when opening the closet with a guy hanging.. why?
He puts on his sunglasses outside but takes them off in the night. Yeah.. Stevie Wonder doesn’t do that..
He said “American” when he tries to barter with the lighter he found.. did he read “Made in USA” or saw the American Flag on the
lighter?
He shot a flying bird for dinner
He shot a guy on the rooftop.. and fought with precision.. and fired numerous precision shot
He saw the lone house down the valley..
When he reached the front door of the old couple’s house and reached for the knob, you will see he was ready to make a “pinch” movement with his thumb and index finger due to the door knob configuration. A blind person would have been surprised by this unusual door knob, but not him.
When asked about the no trespass sign.. he said he didn’t see it (instead of “sorry.. I am blind” which would have been a better defense)
Someone might say.. well he stumbled on the first step..
No.. he kicked it.. to make sure the structure won’t fall apart when he stepped on it.
He reached out and accepted the cup of tea.
He saw the graveyard..
He saw Carnegie’s gang arriving in the far horizon..
During the gun battle he stepped behind the wall..with a big hole.. a blind person will not know where to hide
When Solara reached for food, he grabbed her hand and said “wait.. sit down” –did he “hear” her reaching out for the food?
But he has a braille bible? So what, that was the only copy he found! People with sight can learn Braille and this is a better reason, so people like Carnegie cannot read them
In one scene he told Solara he “walks by faith not sight..” but then again, every Christian even with sight would say that
He looked over to Alcatraz from the bridge and said “there it is..”
He then rowed the boat.. once afloat in water a blind person would not know the direction to row and steer..
When he communicates he moves his head when addressing people, blind people have no need to move ther head.
His eyes looked weird.. like a blind person. The “flash” might have caused some mucular degeneration to his pupil like suggested, but he can still see.
At the very end he shaved.. worrying about aesthetic look is certainly not a blind person’s trait

Eli was in fact blind. Maybe what I’m thinking is that he became blind from the flash therefore in bright light he can see a little. Like in the room with food she makes a comment about it being bright and every place when he looks it is bright. Also he says he see by faith not by sight so maybe God granted him the gift of sight to be able to pass his word around.

This is just a case of people making irrelevant and inconsistent connections. All of his mannerisms suggest he can see. He is clearly in control of his movements about the environment with no effort at all.
To expand on that great list,
After shooting the cat he walks right over to it, puts his hand on it to pull out the arrow, and walks away through trees. A blind person could not do all of that without some extra sensing, even daredevil would need to yell or something.
When he is in the first ambush he takes a few steps backwards to be inside the dark tunnel. His mannerisms suggest he knows he is being masked by shadow. If he was blind he wouldn’t know hes in extra shadow because the sun is clouded over in the seen.
There are also dozens of shots of him looking out a window, scanning an area, then taking a glimpse up at the sun.
When he is on the bridge watching the two people get killed, he is under cover and peaks around the cover several times. A blind person wouldn’t peak and wouldn’t know where to peak.
He walks in the center of the road… straight in the center for yards (in the shots we see). A blind person wouldn’t just ‘know’ which way to walk. The sun is blocked by the clouds so there goes his ‘compass’, but he still knows which direction the road is headed.
He navigates perfectly in the crowd of people. He also finds this ‘thrift’ shop with no problem. Opens the door, closes it, walks straight to the counter.
The last thing I will mention is, he never does double checks for seats. He just sits… because he can SEE where he is sitting. Whether it be rocks stacked on each other (when him and the girl are in the silo) or on a bed, or in a chair.
He is not blind.

In reference to everybody who said ‘he is not blind’, watch it again and you will see that he is. He only kills the bird after hearing it, he only attacks the cannibals at the beginning after smelling them, and he hears Carnegie’s men approaching rather than seeing them.
Once you are aware that he is blind, and watch it again, you will think ‘WTF? Why didn’t I realise it before?’

I love how the people claiming he IS blind can only site 3 or 4 situations that show he could have been blind. While people saying he is not blind can site 10-20 scenes. Face it people, he is not blind. The movie was not Daredevil meets MadMax, it was supposed to show unwavering faith even after the world as been cut out from under you and everything you knew is gone.

He is definitaly Blind. Read Wikipedia.

After he arrives at Alcatraz they show you a close up of his eyes that have no dialation in the pupils and they have a slight white haze, specificaly to show you that he is blind.

He is in no WAY, SHAPE, or Form Blind in any way. Alex, you are on crack if you watched it twice and still think that he is blind. There are a few blind people in the movie and it is quite obvious that they are indeed blind. Watch Eli as he comes of the Store with his battery, the first thing he does is look at the sun to se what time it is. He moves as if he can see where he is going. When the walks up to the Highlanders house he walks right down the stone walkway, this a blind person would not be able to do. HE also shoots people, a cat, and a bird right out of the sky. BLIND PEOPLE DO NOT DO THESE things. The guy can read brail. No biggie, stop stressing. Jacob in the first comment also see’s the movie as it was meant to be seen.

http://blog.beliefnet.com/idolchatter/2010/01/the-book-of-eli-interview-with.html
For all of you who think that Eli is blind in the movie use the link above to read Denzel Washington’s interview. HE WAS NOT BLIND at all as I saw the first time through the movie and then backed my statement by watching it again. Denzel even says he wasn’t blind but the director wanted it to be open for debate.
If you think blind people can do what Eli did in the movie then you need to walk around with your eyes closed for an hour straight, then you will realize that it’s impossible even with God’s help.

Oh an JAMES, Wikipedia is finformation from anybody who wants to post it. You should be weary of what you regurgetate from that site as it may be flawed.
He WAS NOT BLIND people. Never once did the movie even hint that he was.

i think he was blind. he used his senses of smell hearing and position vibrations to place animals and people. they were trying to show that he was EXTREMELY talented. watch the movie again, you’ll sense his blindness. but they did show a closeup of his white corneas at the end trying to let us know that he was indeed blind all this time .

If you watch the movie for a second time you can catch on. The first being when he was in the house at the start where the body is, he bumps into the table. Another near to that scene is when he is pushing the buttons on his iPod.
Further on are his fighting. If you notice he doesnt look at the people he is fighting when in-combat. He uses a technique that someone would use if they were blind. I cant remember what it is called, google it or something.
Further on is he says faith leads him not sight etc etc. Quotes like this hint at it. Then when he tells Solara to stop when he hears the bird and shoots it down. Erm.. When they go to the cannibals home, he apologies to the guy saying he didnt see the sign another hint. Then there is the Bible written in Braille. Then at the end it shows his eyes, which appear to be the eyes of someone who is blind.
People speculate that he was blinded when the apocolypse was going on. But then his eye-sight was restored and once his journey ended to get the bibles readings to people, his blindness came back. But it obvious he was blinded by the apocolypse and throughout the film he was blind.
There are also other hints when he ask Solara the questions about his mothers blindess. Re-watch the movie and u will see all of these in a different perspective.
I think the first clue in the film, is when he searches the burnt out car looking for shoes, however he doesn’t look, he feels down the skeletons legs until he gets to the feet and finds no shoes.

if you read Denzel’s interview, he says that he tripped and bumped into things when filming, for some reason the diretor did not redo the scenes over. he left it up for debate, he wanted people to wonder if eli was blind or not, but according to Denzel Washington he was not blind.

For those of you who are saying Denzel stated that he was not blind in his interview, please re-read the interview carefully. He never ONCE confirmed or denied whether or not he was blind. As a matter of fact, he left it open for debate himself. Here are the two quotes where he talks about his character being blind or not.
“There’s this whole issue, without giving it away, is he blind, is he not.”
“So maybe he can [see], maybe he can’t? Maybe he can see a little bit? Maybe his eyes are clouded? I don’t know.”
As you can see, he himself said “I don’t know” at the end of his interview, because he didn’t want to give it away. As far as him bumping into the piece of furniture in the beginning, all he was saying was that not necessarily every scene is a clue, as at times he was being clumsy and the director decided to stick with it to add to the debate. I hardly interpret that as him confirming he wasn’t blind. I personally believe Heyec hit the nail on the head with his perception of the movie. But take it or leave it, that is what the director intended in the first place.

eli was not blind in the book of eli and ryan wins the bet so he gets a blowjob every day from his wife maria

eli was not blind in the book of eli and ryan wins the bet so he gets a blowjob every day from his wife maria

i was told he was blind ,when i watched the movie i didn’t notice it.But it was very good i liked it.You know what else is good my website check it please.
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The whole point of this was to make the viewer questions whether or not Eli was blind. That is assuming that the viewer pays close enough attention to see the subtle signs that he may be blind. There are numerous signs throughout the movie with a few of these coming at the very beginning.
1. He hits the door of the car before he opens it and then reaches in to the floor board only to realize there is a skeleton in the seat. He then looks at the skeleton.
2. He runs his hand across the shelf in the house to hear the noise that the items on the shelf make.
3. He keeps pushing the buttons on his Ipod even though it clearly shows that the battery being dead.
4. The way he makes solara get quite and then crouches down to listnen before raising, turning and pulling his bow to shoot the bird
5. He kicks the step as he walks up to the old couples home.
6. The color of his eyes at the end when the camera gives you the only real close up look at Elis eyes.
These are just a few of the signs that he may be blind. With that being said if Eli was blind, They did a great job of making you wonder as you watched. Besides the subtle hints there was nothing that would make you believe he was blind. I think this was an intenional attempt to make the viewer really think about the movie as well as to tie Eli to the character Eli in the bible who was blind. I dont believe there is a real answer to the question. I think its up to the viewers imagination and opinion to decide whether or not Eli is blind or not!

Well, if anyone caught this, blind people can use a method, as bats and submarines, kind of like sonar. He uses clicks from his tounge. You can hear him doing this in the beginning before killing the cat, when the bad dudes were surrounding him in the town before the gun shootout and right before he approches the house and kicks the steps to the cannible’s house.
And to that guy that said “Try walking around with your eyes shut for an hour.” Uh, try more like thirty years with God’s hand guiding you on your epic quest, then you can say that :p

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There are many clues to support Eli being blind in this movie. When he approaches the car and opens the door he feels the skeltons feet (looking for shoes) rather than just looking in. After the first fight scene when Eli approaches the woman by the carrage notice how he kicks and trips up on some of the debris (because he can’t see it) on the ground. Just before the second fight scene (in the bar) Eli’s eyes are gray and shaking just like a blind persons. He also kicks the step (before stepping on it) at the cannibles home. After he is shot he pulls out a small knife and aimlessly swings it as if someone were close to him. When Solara first comes to his room she makes the statement ” It’s so bright in here”.

Eli was not blind, at least not during the movie. Although he was blind at one time. Before the war. Weather he was blind at birth, or he lost his sight later in life is unknown. You see when some one is blind for a long time, or at birth, the brain does not develop in the area’s that are responsible for sight. So if you were to give a blind person sight, they still couldn’t see because they wouldn’t be able to understand what it was they saw. He does have blind skills and does things a blind person does. He must have gotten his sight back, either by chance, or divine intervention. So even tho he can see, he will never be able to process the visual information like some one who was never blind. He can understand shapes, and simple things, but cannot make out the difference between a bare foot, and a foot with a shoe on. He knows its a person, be he cannot tell what they are wearing, or what they look like. He knows they are there, but cannot tell if they have a weapon. So he can see, but just doesn’t fully process what he is seeing and relies on his skills and super developed senses other then hearing, as a blind person would have to make up what he is lacking in his vision.

Who were the highlanders?
Whenever Eli was in the shop and the guy asked to check his hands?
And also in the bar?